LABS

Lab Visual Art: “Safety first”

Young artists from all over Europe discuss the topic of safety during an international exhibition

Are we Europeans safe? What does security mean for young Europeans and how do they experience it during their daily life? The participants of the Lab Visual Art will be asking themselves those questions during the participation project Lab Europe, when they develope a joint exhibition from the 16th to 25th of August to the topic ”Safety first”. This exhibition will be opened during the ”Night of Culture” (Kulturnacht) on the 25th of August at the art space hase29. The exhibiton will be opened at 6 pm.

Diversity artistic forms of presentation

Ten artistic work in the shape of sculptures, paiting, instalation, photography, videofilm and Performance will be realized through the young artists individually or together in Osnabrück. Veronika Simmering and Leonie Hafen from the City of Culture Heritage Münster will be searching for conditions and incidents in the daily life in Osnabrück, which are against the general norm. Those ”crime scenes” will be documented in the style of a real forensic securing of evidence. Natalia Merlo Olmedo from Madrid abstracts the conflict between safety aspirations and real security through a self-experiment with water and umbrellas.

Europe of the future

The project Lab Europe, which is supported by the Federal Minister for Culture and media, the Felicitas and Werner Egerland Foundation and the state of Lower-Saxony, applies in a special way to the heirs of the European Culture Heritage. The young participants get to know through exchange, dialogue and joint creative work the European history, communicate about joint value and develope a perspective for a young Eruope. Thereby the include their national heritage and through their personal attitude shaped perspective.

Lab performance: ”The Listeners”

Young Europeans present ”The Listeners” at the Hall of Peace

The participants develope a long-term performance, which puts the process of listening in the center of communication. Under the titel ”The Listeners” this performance will be performed at the day of the ”Night of Culture” (Kulturnacht), 28. August.2018 at the Peace Hall in the Town Hall. The performance starts at 5.30 am and lasts until almost the end of the day at 20.59 pm.

New perspectives of communication

The goal of the performance is to make the significance of listening in Processes of communication and Peace between two different cultures understandable. Visitors can be a part of the Performance and get to know themselves how the participation changes the perspective and the communication.

Preperation for the Performance

The participants will be supported by the international Performanceartist Ernesto Pujol. After his four year long stay as a silent monk at the monestary, Pujol uses his knowledges in meditating for his projects as an performanceartist. Through practises and self-awareness the participants will be prepared mentaly for the long lasting performance at the Peace Hall. The Lab Performance takes place as a cooperation between the ”Arthall Osnabrück” (Kunsthalle Osnabrück) and the Theater Osnabrück.

Lab digital Media and Games: ”Being European”

Young Europeans create diversity of media at the international participation project Lab Europe

Young Europeans between 18 and 26 years will, either together or individually, phrase their own personal vision for Europe and in doing so take a look at their own understanding of a united, European identity. At the Lab there will be technical equpiment in order to realize their ideas into a movie, an audio piece, a machinima, a Let’s Play or a Crossover. At the end a meida-collage will be formed, which will be presented to a brighter audience on the 25th of August at the gallery hase29.

European identity

We all are Europeans, that’s clear. But do we also feel like it? When we are asked to classify oursleves, as what do we categorize ourselves? As Europeans? As citizens of a country, a region or a city? What defines our European identity? The Lab in cooperation with the LAG Youth & Film Lower Saxony e.V., the European Media Art Festival and the werk.statt e.V. will try to find answers in form of media to these questions.

Expertise through Filmmakers and Media lecturer

From the 16th to 26th of August all participants will meet at the Media House Osnabrück and will be supported by media pedagogues, who will share their knowledge with the participants.

Stefan Berendes for example can pass on his knowledge from working as a consultant for the Lower Saxonian state medie office.

Consultant Eric Jannot teaches Game Design at the University of Applied Sciences Europe and ist especially interested in the ethic in Computer Games. He is involved in the campaign GameOverHate of the European Council against discrimination in interactive Media.

Thomas Kirchberg works since nearly 20 years full-time as an freelance moviemaker. His movie ”Morgenland” was awarded 2006 with the ”German Human Right Movieaward” (Deutscher Menschenrechts Filmpreis).

Lab history: ”War and Peace in European history”

Young people share their personal story at the participation project ”Lab Europe”

War and Peace in Europe – that is a comprehensive topic that everybody is involved in. From the 16th of August 15 young people from all over Europe will be meeting in Osnabrück to discuss this intensively for 10 days. At the 25th of August 2018 the results will be displayed at the Akzisehaus in the course of the ”Kulturnacht” (Night of Culture), at 6 pm.

For that the young Europeans will bring historic objects with them in order to tell each other stories about war and peace from national and also personal point of view.
The result of the participation project will be an exhibition from the historic objects, that will illuminate the different facets of war and peace in Europe and also make the personal stories behind the exhibits comprehensible.

Europeans tell personal stories

Yurii from Ukraine is one of the participants of the Lab History and has dealt with the history, present and future of his own country while searching for an exhibit: ”I want to bring with me two things. On the one side a Soviet postcardfrom the 9th of May 1948, the day of the victory. It refers to the story of my country and is a memory of my grandfather, who fought in the Second World War.”

The secon exhibit shows that a constant end of the war isn’t always certain: ”The secon object is dealing with the conflict in the East of Ukraine. It’s two small pieces of coal, one from the Eastern Ukrainian coal basin, the other one from the coal basin from Western Ukrainian. They represent a manifest from the Ukrainian unit and from the peace in the near future.”

Intercultural dialogue

While the participants bring in their national, individually shaped experiences, various instructors open their perspective through expert contribution and allow a new, mutual perspective on the European history.
It remains excting how the intercultural communication during the project days will shape the final exhibiton.

Europe of the future

The project ”Lab Europe”, which is supported by the Federal Minister for Culture and Media, the Felicitas and Werner Egerland Foundation and the State of Lower Saxony, applys to a special degree to the ”inheritors” of the European Culture Heritage. The young participants will get to know the European history through exchange, dialogue and mutual crative work, and communicate on mutual values, while developing perspectives for a young Europe. At the same time they introduce their perspective, which is shaped by their national heritage and personal attitude.

Lab music: ” Memory Culture - Songs from the KZ Theresienstadt”

Memory Culture – Songs from the KZ Theresienstadt

Ten young Instrumentalists from various countries and ten vocal students from the Institute for Music of the University for Applied Sciences (IfM) will be getting creative together. They rehearse under the guidance of the singer, cellist and pedagogue Simon Wallfish (musical director) and the vocal coach Ruth Frenk (production and concept) 15 compositions, which were developed at the ghetto Theresienstadt.

Cultural elite in the KZ

At the compolsury community from the KZ Theresienstadt nearly the whole jewish cultural elite were brought together. Academics from all fields of knowledge, artists, people from the theater, writers, musicians – brutally torn out of their normal lifes – found themselves with a mass of old people combined in their misery. Ruth Frenk dealt with the topic music in Theresienstadt for the last years. The selection of compositions came about because of her research. To take the production role in the artistical ealisation is her hearts desire: ”You aks yourself involuntary how it was possible for the componists in Theresienstadt to compose, rehearse and perform such cheerful music even under those circumstances. Maybe because the artistical expression is and will be a basic need for the human beeing. This creative power amidst all the suffering does deeply impress.”

The leadsheets and piano scores that were provided by Ruth Frenk were newly arranged by students of the Institute for Music in the subject composition, music theory and aural training. Under the lead of the lecturer Ali Gorji they newly attached the songs for the instrumental accompaniment in different casts.

Ostralized Music

With Simon Wallfish the lab also won a musical leader, who has a wealth of experiences in the mediation of works from jewish componists who were prosecuted at the time of the National Socialism. He is from a well known jewish family of musicians and the grandchild of the cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfish, who was able to survive because of her cello as a member from the girls orchestra from the KZ Ausschwitz.

Simon Wallfish appreciates that ostralized music currently finds it’s place numerious times as a part of commemoration ceremonies. At the same time he is very critical concerning this fact: ”Those kind of efforts are doing their part in bringing lost voices back. However they should be the first of many steps. We would render a bad service to us and the componists if we contemplate their music with a view on their brutal death instead of acknowledging them in the light of their full life. Ostralized music and ostralized musicians were branded by the ideological hate of the Nazis. That is how until today an independent and random genre has developed in which componists with totally different backgrounds and with differently pronounced talents are lumped together.”

Place of Remembrance

At a Osnabrücker place of remembrance the participants will present a selection of the compiled compositions at the end of the lab ”Memory Culture – Songs from the KZ Theresienstadt”: the Felix-Nussbaum-Haus”. Unlike any other artist from the first half of the century, the 1904 in Osnabrück born and 1944 in Ausschwitz killed painter Felix Nussbaum portrayed all his experiences after the First World War in his paintings and reflected on his own situation, in which he was thrust into as a Jew because of the racist ideology from the Nazi-influenced Germany.